1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to image-display game systems and, more specifically, to an image-display game system diversified in game process with property data provided to characters such as monsters appearing therein. Such an image-display game system is applied to video game machines and portable game machines on which those characters have battles, get captured, get trained, are traded, or any combination thereof.
2. Description of the Background Art
Video games such as the xe2x80x9cPocket Monster (versions in red, green, blue, and yellow)xe2x80x9d (trade name; hereinafter, xe2x80x9cprior artxe2x80x9d) have been designed and distributed by the same assignee of this application. In the prior art, the game is played for capturing, training, and trading characters (hereinafter referred to as monsters or characters), and each version differs in probability of a character or monster appearing. The characters such as monsters are tradable among players, and each player captures and keeps up to the maximum number of characters or monsters.
The player can enjoy the game in the prior art for a relatively long period without losing his or her interest. Furthermore, exchanging the characters such as monsters with friends serves to expand communications and cultivate friendships. However, the players may lose their interest sooner or later if the game is fun for trading the characters such as monsters only.
Therefore, a main object of the present invention is to provide an image-display game system, incorporating virus infection and being full of change and surprise, and encouraging players to trade monsters. Herein, game characters such as monsters are, for example, pocket monsters (hereinafter, shortened as xe2x80x9cpokemonsxe2x80x9d).
This invention is directed to an image-display game system comprising an information storage medium and an image-display game device detachable with the information storage medium,
the information storage medium comprising a program storage in which a game program is unalterably stored, and
the image-display game device comprising: an actuator by a player; a temporal writable/readable storage including an infection data region where property data varied in type is stored for every character captured in the course of a game, and data indicating whether the character has been virus infected is started; a processor for carrying out information processing in response to the actuator and based on the program; and an image display for displaying an image obtained through processing carried out by the processor, wherein,
with the program carried out, the processor subjects an image on display to change in response to the actuator; changes the property data to be stored in the temporary storage responding to game process made based on the state of the actuator; changes the characters"" images based on the property data; has data indicating if the captured character has been virus infected; and writes the data indicative of being virus infected into at least one of the infection data regions corresponding to the captured characters stored in the temporal storage, when a predetermined condition is satisfied.
According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, which incorporates virus infection, it is possible to provide an image-display game system and an information storage medium having a game program stored therein, which provides for a game full of changes and surprises and encourages the players to trade characters such as monsters.
These and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.